PGCB's Director of Licensing Named Vice Chair of International Gaming Association

HARRISBURG: Susan Hensel, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s Director of Licensing, has been elected Vice Chair of the International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR). The election occurred during the association’s annual meeting, which was held in Washington, D.C. the week of October 11, 2010.

Hensel has served as Secretary of IAGR during the past three years and will be in line to succeed Serobi Maja, Chief Executive Officer, Limpopo Gambling Board, South Africa, who ascended to Chair.

Begun in the 1980’s, IAGR was formed to advance the effectiveness and efficiency of gaming regulation throughout the world and provides a forum in which gaming regulators in the United States and in other countries can meet, exchange views and information, and discuss policy issues. In addition, IAGR creates a means of fostering cooperation between gaming regulators in the performance of their official duties and is a central point of contact for inquiries from governments, gaming regulatory agencies and personnel, and representatives of the international gaming industry.

Hensel was one of the first employees of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and was named to head the Bureau of Licensing in November 2005. As Director, Hensel oversees the licensing of the state’s casinos and other gaming related companies doing business in the state as well as the employees working in and supporting the gaming industry. Before joining the Gaming Board, Hensel worked on gaming implementation issues as a Special Assistant to then-Pennsylvania Secretary of Revenue Gregory C. Fajt. Before joining the Revenue Department, Hensel was an Assistant General Counsel in the Governor's Office of General Counsel; a Staff Attorney at the state Office of Inspector General; and Executive Assistant to the Pennsylvania Secretary of Labor & Industry. She was also a general assignment reporter at WHP-TV in Harrisburg and a news producer at WISN in Milwaukee. Hensel earned her J.D. degree from Widener University Law School in Harrisburg, where she graduated cum laude from the evening division and was on the staff of the Law Review. She earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Hensel sees this as a tremendous opportunity to both identify best practices from the other jurisdictions to put to use in Pennsylvania and to contribute successful gaming regulatory ideas used in Pennsylvania to other jurisdictions throughout the world.

“My participating in IAGR and the opportunity it affords to exchange ideas with gaming regulators throughout the world is not only personally rewarding but enables me to share new ideas with our staff in Pennsylvania to improve the effectiveness of our regulatory process.” Hensel says.

Hensel is also a member of the IAGR Steering Committee which is made up of twelve regulators from throughout the world, including Australia, Norway, Singapore, New Zealand, Antigua, South Africa, United Kingdom and the United States.

About the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board was established in 2004 with the passage of Act 71, also known as the Race Horse Development and Gaming Act. Pennsylvania’s first new state agency in nearly 40 years, the Gaming Control Board is tasked to oversee all aspects of the state’s casino industry. To date, with ten casinos in operation, legalized gaming in the Commonwealth has created over 13,000 new living wage jobs, revenue that has provided property tax reduction in each of the past three years for all homeowners, funds that have reinvigorated Pennsylvania’s horse racing industry, and new revenue to local governments that has funded scores of community projects. A wealth of information about the Gaming Control Board and Pennsylvania’s gaming industry can be found at www.pgcb.state.pa.us. At this web site, visitors can view videos of Board meetings and on the operation of the PGCB, obtain information on identifying a gambling problem and gaining assistance, look up future meeting schedules and past meeting transcripts, access an interactive map of casino locations, request a speaker for their group, along with much more information.

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